The Beezer
The Beezer was a weekly humour comic published by DC Thomson from 21 January 1956 to 21 August 1993, when it unofficially "merged" with The Beano. It was originally pubished at A3 size, but shrank to A4 in 1981. Comics that merged with The Beezer during its 37 year run were Cracker in 1976, Plug in 1979, and The Topper in 1990. Although the comic ended in 1993, three other publications continued for a few years afterwards. They were The Best of Beezer (1988-1996), The Beezer Summer Special (1973-2002, known as the Holiday Special from 1998 onwards) and The Beezer Book (1957-2003). Strips Adventure *"Adrian the Barbarian" (1989-83) - reprinted as of 19 July 2008 issue (3441) of The Beano as "Olaff the Madlander". Drawn by Robert Nixon and Sid Burgon *"Baby Crockett" (1956-93), drawn by Bill Ritchie *"The Badd Lads" - a group of three criminals (Boss, Fingers and Knucklehead) always on the run or bungling an attempted crime. Drawn by Malcolm Judge, later by Barrie Appleby. *"The Banana Bunch" (1956-93) - about a group of kids, Brainy, Dopey, Lanky, Titch, Fatty, Cookie (1977-1979), Thatch (1977-1986), Sis (1994-). Drawn by George Martin. Robert Nixon, Gordon Bell and Tom Paterson. Now being reprinted in Dandy Xtreme. *"Barney's Barmy Army" *"Beefy Dan The Fast-Food Man" *"Black Bun" - a rabbit stealing cabbages from a farmer. Drawn by George Martin *"The Black Sapper" - 1959 story about a thief who stole the Crown Jewels with his tunnelling machine called the Earthworm. *"Bushwacker" - an Australian father and his two children travelling in their "land yacht" multi-purpose verhicle, which later developed into a submersible helicopter, and finally, with the strip renamed "Spacewacker", a spaceship. *"Cap'n Hand and his Merry Mutineers" - a pirate captain and his endlessly rebellious crew *"Colonel Blink, the Short-Sighted Gink" originally drawn by Tom Bannister, later drawn by Gordon Bell. A spin-off strip, "Blinky", about the colonel's equally short-sighted young nephew, was drawn by George Martin and Gordon Bell. *"Club 5" - Beezer's own version of The Dandy's "Cuddles and Dimples" *"Fred's Bed" (1990-93) - recently reprinted in The Beano, but now new strips. Drawn by David Parkins and occasionally Tom Paterson. *"Geezer" (1989-93) - about a young boy who is always after money. Drawn by Robert Nixon, Trevor Metcalfe and Jimmy Hansen. *"Gnatasha" (1990-93) - The daughter of Gnasher and sister of Gnipper from The Beano in her own strip in the late 80s and early 90s. Drawn by Bill Ritchie *"Ginger" (1956-90 - whole Beezer run)- cover star in earliest issues, and from mid-1960s to 1987. Originally drawn by Dudley D. Watkins. *"The Gobbles" - a group of vultures always on the lookout for food. *"The Hillys and the Billys" - two feuding hillbilly families. This strip was surprisingly violent, with the families eager to shoot each other with shotguns - even to the point of co-operating in order to steal guns from the sheriff. Drawn by George Martin and later on by Barry Glennard *"Hungry Hoss" (1981-87) - a horse owned by Joe the cowboy robber who couldn't stop eating. Drawn by Bill Ritchie *"The Iron Eaters" - sponges from space that ate iron, causing all kinds of problems *"The Jellymen" Five legged invaders from the deep *"Little Mo" (1964-93) - a generic resourceful/mischievous tomboy. *"The Munchers"(1981-86) - About a bunch of thieving rabbits. Drawn by Gordon Bell *"My Pal, Ropey" *"The Numskulls" - tiny people living in your head, each working in their own department: brain, eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Now in The Beano.) Drawn by Malcolm Judge and later on by Tom Lavery and Steve Bright. *"Our Sheriff's An Ape"- About a town with two sheriffs, one who's human called Danny Blain, and another who's an ape named Charlie. *"Paw, Maw and Porky" (1986-90) - Later on just called 'Porky'. Drawn by John Geering *"Pop, Dick and Harry" - early cover story about twins trying to outsmart their father. In every issue. *"Saucy Sue" (1981-87) *"Smiffy" (1960s-88) - About a boy who liked getting dirty. Drawn by Bill Ritchie *"Space Patrol" *"Sting" (1988-93) - about a group of bees, (Originally called "The Beezers"). Drawn by Bob Dewar *"Tommy's Toybox" - Tommy finds a toolbox from space and builds all kinds of interesting things *"True Brit" - a boy named Tommy Britain who appeared on the cover between 1987 and 1988. *"Tuff and Tiny" - About a young caveboy and his cowardly pet dragon. Drawn by Gordon Bell *"Twitt Hall"- Drawn by John Geering *"The Wallies of Winkle Street" (1984-87)- A family *"Young Sid The Copper's Kid"- About a young lad called Sid and his dad PC 99. Drawn by George Martin From Plug *"First Ada" - About a tomboy girl, who looks after hurt animals. Drawn by Gordon Bell. A Plug merger. *"Hugh's Zoo" (1977-82) - About a boy who has his own zoo. Drawn by Gordon Bell. A Plug merger. *"Plug" (1977-86) From Cracker *"Joe Soap" - About a boy and his grandpa and a strange lot of bubbles. Drawn by John Dallas. *"Scrapper" (1975-88) - About a young lad who always gets into fights. Drawn by Gordon Bell and George Martin. External links Online reference Category:Weekly Category:Anthologies Category:Humour Category:DC Thomson titles * Category:Comics launched in 1956